Friday Finds – January 24, 2014

Friday Finds is a weekly event hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can discuss books that you’ve discovered over the course of the week and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list. They can be books that are new or used. They can be ones that you’ve borrowed (library or friend), found online, heard about from a friend, etc.

This week I received the books listed below. They are all different, but look equally good. Check them out:

Synopsis: In her debut novel, Patricia Cori weaves her visionary message into a page-turning fantasy adventure that speaks to the very soul of the planet.

Within minutes of one another, three bone-chilling events take place around the globe. In Los Angeles, hundreds of blackbirds drop out of the sky, zapped to their death, mid-flight; in Maine, miles of beach are covered in tens of thousands of dead fish; in New Zealand, 150 whales and dolphins lie dead or dying on the beach.

Jamie Hastings, a renowned psychic researcher and telepath, forges a deep soul connection with the dying whales that leads to her troubled journey at sea as a consultant for USOIL, a Texas based oil company that’s drilling in the most pristine waters of the Pacific Northwest, looking for oil–or so it seems. A bizarre unfolding of events aboard ship sparks the unraveling of a truly evil plan of a secret government that is intent upon silencing the music of the oceans and destroying all life on the planet.

We meet Mat Anderson, CEO of USOIL, whose real objective is not oil but a colony of light beings that he hopes to destroy; Captain Jimbo, a low-grade NSA official, who thinks their mission it to open peaceful contact with the beings; Sam Kemmeries, a pompous MIT grad whose father, a congressman, has managed to get him the post of chief technician aboard the ship, The Deepwater; and Liz Bartholomew, a young college girl who’s supposedly an intern for a six-month training period–but she too wears a mask.

As impossible as it is to imagine anything as sinister as the shadow Jamie faces in her mission to save the earth from the doomsday weapon bearing down on the world, the fact is that it is actually happening, at this very moment, while most of the world is asleep–or simply unaware.

One woman has been chosen to be the voice, against the forces of evil, of the cherished creatures of the sea. She is the emissary.

The question is: Is there still time for her to stop it?

Synopsis: When my dad was told he had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), he knew that his life was coming to an end. What he didn’t know was that it was also just beginning.

In the time he had left, his life changed dramatically. He became friends with Ted Danson, spent Thanksgiving with Marsha Mason and Shirley MacLaine and he was the subject of an episode of Becker. He was featured on Entertainment Tonight, E! Entertainment and in TV Guide. But most important, he became a part of his young grandsons’ lives. Henry was six, Joe was four. And what they don’t remember themselves of their grampa, I hope they’ll rediscover in this book.

To be with a parent while they are dying is one of the most human of experiences. It is what we are supposed to do. And while those months with my dad were difficult in a myriad of ways, they were the richest and most rewarding of my life. They were, as well, chockablock with humor, since—as nearly any comedy writer will tell you—in the midst of great hardship, there is always funny.

At the time, I didn’t think of the experience as “an honor,” but when I look back, I realize that it was an honor of the highest order.

Synopsis: Twelve Years Old And Pregnant… Twelve is the personal story of a young woman who not only survived being a preteen mother, but went on to dedicate her life to sharing information and helping others. Determined not to become part of the statistics that condemn preteen mothers and their children to lives of failure, Aries Free called on all her resilience, knowing in her heart that she deserved better. This moving and inspiring book calls attention to the need for young women to receive better education at home and at school about sexuality, and the need for society as a whole to be more open and supportive. Twelve will open your eyes to the ways in which poverty and social discrimination contribute to the epidemic of preteen and teen pregnancy, and the ways in which our schools and social services fail to provide a solid structure for these at-risk mothers and children. The cycle of preteen mothers stops only when there is honesty, compassion, and action. Twelve provides a strong role model for preteen and teen mothers, and shows that there is always hope, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Synopsis: This is a story about borderline attorneys, their employees and associates, all yearning for a different life and devising madcap schemes that embroil them in seriously troubling entanglements. . One of them has withdrawn from the stresses of the profession and is trying to live a life of quiet contemplation and self-discovery in isolation at the beach, but he is constantly drawn back into the chaos engendered by his friends. His life- changing discoveries have taken him on a journey into the martial arts and to an unforgettable friendship with the great writer Henry Miller. His friends turn to him to help them untangle hopeless complications resulting from their misadventures. One of leading characters commits a heinous murder that upsets the delicate balance of trust and interdependence that holds their world together. It changes the street dynamic and causes their lives to be engulfed in increasingly disruptive turmoil. A love story is interwoven throughout between the attorney protagonist and a lovely woman. She ridicules his self-involvement and world view, and wants him to relate to her in ways he finds spurious and unrealizable. Their fluctuating relationship resonates throughout the bizarre events elaborated in the story